1. Field
Embodiments disclosed herein relate to a liquid crystal display in which a light emitting diode as a light source is provided at an edge portion and light is guided through a light guide plate to a liquid crystal panel. The liquid crystal display may be applied to a variety of electronic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is a display device which includes a liquid crystal panel to display an image and a backlight unit to project light onto the liquid crystal panel and to convert an electric signal into visual information.
The backlight unit may include a light source and a variety of optical subsidiary members. For example, a CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp), an EEFL (External Electrode Fluorescent Lamp), a LED (Light Emitting Diode), or the like may be used as the light source.
The backlight unit may be classified into a direct type backlight unit and an edge type backlight unit depending on a position of the light source. The edge type backlight unit generally includes a LGP (Light Guide Plate) to guide light emitted from the light source to the liquid crystal panel.
A light guide plate may generally be made of a plastic material such as PMMA (poly (methyl methacrylate)) due to the superior light transmittance of PMMA. However, since PMMA is sensitive to heat, the light guide plate may readily undergo thermal expansion when the LCD increases in temperature.
If the light guide plate undergoes thermal expansion, a gap between the light guide plate and the LED is narrowed and further the light guide plate may collide with the LED. Accordingly, in most LCDs of the related art, the light guide plate and the LED are arranged to be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined safety gap in order to prevent collision therebetween due to thermal expansion of the light guide plate.